On March 1st the Center for Mindful Learning will be moving to beautiful Johnson, VT and expanding our residential program. There we will spend the next year in an experimental phase focused on answering the following question:  What does a socially engaged and economically sustainable meditation training center look like in modern America?  We are interested in answering this question because we see the establishment of a fully modern form of deep mindfulness practice as a central component in the radical shift in humanity that current personal, social, and environmental circumstances demand.

As this is no small task, the formation of an effective team is paramount.  We seek people with one or more of the following:

• experience in entrepreneurship, non-profits, marketing, business model development, or lean design and experimentation
• experience in social justice and inclusivity
• a genuine commitment to rigorous meditation training with the goal of classical enlightenment
• creativity, energy, and love

Please distribute this information anywhere that you think it may be of value.  Really, anywhere; we are a small organization and need your help to get the word out.  With your help, we will build a meditation training center that will produce the ethically grounded and inspired leaders that our world desperately needs.

Learn more about CML Residential

Meet the current residents

I am grateful for this community here at CML.  Today we woke up at our normal time to sit together.  We have a smaller community than usual today, as about half of the residents have departed for Thanksgiving.  After a breakfast of pancakes and lentil soup, we shoveled the driveways together, culminating in a couple of snowballs and, of course, a snow turkey.

I prepared an adapted version of an Abenaki 3 Sisters Soup recipe for our vegetarian potluck tonight, beginning at 6 pm, followed by a meditation around 7:30.  Other residents are preparing dishes as well.

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]T[/su_dropcap]hanks for the gift of life, friendship, and love.  

Thanks for a center that encourages letting go of obstacles to clarity and love.  

Thank you for a community of respectable friends. 

Thank you for a leader that respects life and demonstrates skill in words and actions.  Thanks for his continued efforts towards our growth into maturity.  

Thank you for fresh air and for being fed – may everyone everywhere have such gifts.  Thanks to the sincerity and care of our supportive community of laypersons, may they be forever a force of clarity in the world.  

Thanks for the prior experiences that led me to where I am now.

Thanks for the continued existence of so many various and diverse cultures and peoples.  Though many no longer exist, may no culture, ever again, be lost through violence or oppression.  

I am grateful that traditions and people with a much deeper connection to the land than I have ever experienced continue today.

Thanksgiving Prayer from the Mohawk

The People
Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have
been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living
things. So now, we bring our minds together as one as we give greetings
and thanks to each other as People.
UhHuh
The Earth Mother
We are all thankful to our Mother, the Earth, for she gives us all that we need
for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that
she continues to care for us as she has from the beginning of time. To our
Mother, we send greetings and thanks.
UhHuh
The Waters
We give thanks to all the Waters of the world for quenching our thirst and providing
us with strength. Water is life. We know its power in many forms– waterfalls
and rain, mists and streams, rivers and oceans. With one mind, we
send greetings and thanks to the spirit Water.
UhHuh
The Fish
We turn our minds to all the Fish life in the water. They were instructed to
cleanse and purify the water. They also give themselves to us as food. We are
grateful that we can still find pure water. So, we turn now to the fish and send
our greetings and thanks.
UhHuh
The Plants
Now we turn towards the vast fields of Plant life. As far as the eye can see, the
Plants grow, working many wonders. They sustain many life forms. With
our minds gathered together, we give thanks and look forward to seeing Plant
life for many generations to come.
Uhhuh

The Food Plants
With one mind, we turn to honor and thank all the Food Plants we harvest
from the garden. Since the beginning of time, the grains, vegetables, beans and
berries have helped the people survive. Many other living things draw strength
from them too. We gather all the Plant Foods together as one and send them a
greeting and thanks.
Now our minds are one.

The Medicine Herbs
Now we turn to all the Medicine Herbs of the world. From the beginning, they
were instructed to take away sickness. They are always waiting and ready to
heal us. We are happy there are still among us those special few who remember
how to use these plants for healing. With one mind, we send greetings and
thanks to the Medicines and to the keepers of the Medicines
Now our minds are one.

The Animals
We gather our minds together to send greetings and thanks to all the Animal
life in the world. They have many things to teach us as people. We see them
near our homes and in the deep forests. We are glad they are still here and we
hope that it will always be so.
Now our minds are one.

The Trees
We now turn our thoughts to the Trees. The Earth has many families of Trees
who have their own instructions and uses. Some provide us with shelter and
shade, other with fruit, beauty and other useful things. Many peoples of the
world use a Tree as a symbol of peace and strength. With one mind, we greet
and thank the tree of life.
Now our minds are one.

The Birds
We put our minds together as one and thank all the Birds who move and fly
about over our heads. The Creator gave them beautiful songs. Each day they
remind us to enjoy and appreciate life. The Eagle was chosen to be their
leader. To all the Birds– from the smallest to the largest–we send our joyful
greetings and thanks.  Now our minds are one.

The Four Winds.  We are all thankful to the powers we know as the Four Winds. We hear their
voices in the moving air as they refresh us and purify the air we breathe. They
help to bring the change of seasons. From the four directions they come,
bringing us messengers and giving us strength. With one mind, we send our
greetings and thanks to the Four Winds.
Now our minds are one.

The Thunders
Now we turn to the west where our Grandfathers, the Thunder Beings, live.
With lightening and thundering voices, they bring with them the water that renews
life. We bring our minds together as one to send greetings and thanks to
our Grandfathers, the Thunders.
Now our minds are one.

The Sun
We now send the greetings and thanks to our eldest Brother, the Sun. Each
day without fail he travels the sky from east to west, bringing the light of a new
day. He is the source of all the fires of life. With one mind, we send greetings
and thanks to our Brother, the Sun.
Now our minds are one.

Grandmother Moon
We put our minds together and give thanks to our oldest Grandmother, the
Moon, who lights the nighttime sky. She is the leader of women all over the
world, and she governs the movement of the ocean tides. By her changing face
we measure time, and it is the Moon who watches over the arrival of children
here on Earth. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to our Grandmother,
the Moon.
Now our minds are one.

The Stars
We give thanks to the Stars who are spread across the sky like jewelry. We see
them in the night, helping the Moon to light the darkness and bringing dew to
the gardens and growing things. When we travel at night, they guide us home.
With our minds gathered together as one, we send greetings and thanks to all
the Stars.
Now our minds are one.

The Enlightened Teachers
We gather our minds to greet and thank the enlightened Teachers who have
come to help throughout the ages. When we forget how to live in harmony,
they remind us of the way we were instructed to live as people. With one
mind, we send greetings and thanks to these caring Teachers.
Now our minds are one.

The Creator
We turn our thoughts to the Creator, Great Spirit, and send greetings and
thanks for all the gifts of Creation. Everything we need to live a good life is
here on this Mother Earth. For all the love that is still around us, we gather
our minds together as one and send our choicest words of greetings and
thanks to the Creator.
Now our minds are one.

Prepared by Bettina Castagno

]]> https://www.centerformindfullearning.org/thanksgiving/feed/ 0 https://www.centerformindfullearning.org/life-monastery/ https://www.centerformindfullearning.org/life-monastery/#comments Mon, 10 Nov 2014 09:22:40 +0000 http://www.centerformindfullearning.org/?p=1366

[su_dropcap style=”flat” size=”5″]A[/su_dropcap]fter lunch I rally stray efforts.  I steady myself to pull on a months-old pair of blown out running shoes – not bothering to undo and retie the double knots.  My feet and legs escort me in a jarring cantor down the hill, and after ten minutes, my confusion subsides.  As usual, I can start to feel my lungs again and so make my way in the direction of the lake..

The beach is a special place for me.  Looking at the birds and on the water’s surface I forget that the morning existed – watching the sky expressed upon the undulations of the lake surface, witnessing that multitude of direction.

[su_quote]When I get to know my body, get to know my life – the person that lives in my mind passes away – dies with that cold – with that reverence to the passing nature of this body.[/su_quote]

I’ve been trying for awhile now to figure out a a way to express to friends and family my rational for staying here.  Choosing to live this lifestyle – well, I’ve made a bunch of sacrifices – big ones.  Theres little room in the day, for instance, even to share the rationale for that decision with with the people who helped me become an adult.

A stupid starting point – I once remember talking to my life about some of the relative oddities and phenomena that happen to your perception when you live a life where you’re mind learns to find satisfaction outside of changing conditions.  Walking around in this structured life, you literally learn how to forget the step that led you to taking this one; meditating all day, you simply can’t remember.  This may sound strange but you can’t remember a lot of things: like who you are and you start to understand knowing information as a memory.  When you take your mind off of that memory and into the present moment, you find that there is enough there to sustain and live by – there’s an awe from this direct experience.

[su_quote]You start not even identify with yourself.. you start to see yourself as a person, manifesting out of thin air – like all people and you love start to love that person as much as you would your own brother.[/su_quote]

[su_dropcap style=”flat” size=”5″]W[/su_dropcap]ith the environment of contemplative training comes the experiential understanding of how life is interconnected.  Walking across the room – you start to identify with the floor that the foot lands upon- and understand the foot for its purpose – in the present moment when its relationship to something else is needed.

I remember sticking my hand out the window, of a moving highway car ride last autumn toward the end of three months in silence – watching it sail through the 60 mph wind and thinking to myself, what a beautiful hand, that hand must belong to a beautiful person; and what a beautiful person, to have such a beautiful hand.

[su_dropcap style=”flat” size=”5″]T[/su_dropcap]here’s an assumption about practice of meditation in the West – that meditation is something that happens independently of our lives.  People in the west tend to think of meditation as some special thing.  When one goes to a monastery,  even if you’re attempting to, you inevitably aren’t escaping your life – you’re actually constraining yourself to face what we all struggle with in life.  Coming into a structure like this, there’s no space left unaccounted for, it’s set up to train you 24/7, and residents are expected to live in such a way where every thought, action and word accords with your goal of clarifying your mind.

[su_quote]Living in this environment, you start to realize that the next breath is all you need – there aren’t any breaks and there is no home to go to. [/su_quote]Living in this environment, you start to realize that the next breath is all you need – there aren’t any breaks and there is no home to go to. You discover that you don’t need anything when you come into contact with an experience of life where the experience of “you” falls away.  When every decision is in the context of the one thing you’re dedicated to accomplishing with your life, then every moment shows its purpose and becomes an affirmation of your trustworthiness.

People come to monasteries to die – that’s it, we die – we die outside of monasteries and in monasteries – and when we die, when our body dies, what’s actually happening is that the pattern, the illusion that there was something about this body that was fixed, finally falls away – this can happen as the body dies, or it can happen before the body dies – it’s actually happening all the time, but to live a life based on that, to maintain a living understanding of that miracle that it is to be alive – that is the reason for the space a monastery affords.

There’s an old saying that “In monasteries the days pass like months, and the months pass like days.”  Earlier today, one of my friends asked, “well how do the years pass.”  Time looks differently when it isn’t structured around gain and loss – there’s a shift that happens when you’re excited to and motivated enough, willing enough to just let the day happen – the day becomes long.  The time it takes to walk from your dormitory to the meditation hall becomes like a day outing – the act of moving your body becomes a tool – you start to wonder – what is this tool’s application?

Because people in monasteries are cultivating  a clearer and clearer experience, they often start to think about death and the value of their lives – before I started training, I never thought about death and so I thought I had a long time to live- after starting training I saw how clearly life is passing now.

[su_dropcap style=”flat” size=”5″]A[/su_dropcap]t the age of twenty-four, there is still the grain and drive within me of a young man that likes to get his hands dirty, his knees scraped and finish an afternoon in th[/su_dropcap]e outdoors with numb appendages – for all intents and purposes, this is why I can say I love the outdoors and the intensity of living a life of training. We have a couple hours of unstructured time set aside each day and I almost never pass up the opportunity to go running – it’s so visceral, so apparent that your body is so delicate, so ephemeral, so precious in the wind, in the cold and misting air. 

[su_quote]I’ve wandered through a mountain range of distances at a scale that allows time within a day to meet the aspirations of a year. [/su_quote]

Living in monastery, time slows down – I haven’t the slightest idea about the ontology of this but a meal that lasts twenty minutes is hours long, and at the end of the day – reflecting back, it literally feels as if I’ve wandered through a mountain range of distances at a scale that allows time within a day to meet the aspirations of a year.  Running, each footstep concludes like a good book – that same satisfaction – that same relief as on the last day of school or the completion of some long term goal is there: the same self confidence – the feeling “Oh, I can trust myself.”

If this experience sounds appealing – know that it is my own experience – please discover for yourself what can’t be described in words – check out our residential program, and consider filling out an application to see if this is where that adventure awaits you.